Lambs Hide, Tigers Seek... NEW from SteveJordanBooks.com

[Steve Jordan]

Lambs Hide, Tigers Seek, my latest novel, will be available at www.SteveJordanBooks.com (http://www.SteveJordanBooks.com) on October 6th!

In 2001, heiress Ellen Levinson vanished from a downtown Washington hotel under mysterious circumstances. Five years later, a series of blackmail letters lead investigator Alain Guest to Nashville, and into the local Goth and bondage scene, in search of the missing girl. Will he find Ellen alive... manage to avoid the blackmailers... or will his own fractured psyche finally shatter under the onslaught of such extreme and sexual lifestyles?

Because you demanded it! (Well, a couple of you seriously suggested it, anyway...) My first non-Sci-Fi novel, a noir-style psychological drama with a little mystery thrown in. Lambs Hide, Tigers Seek, like my other novels, will be available for $2.50, in multiple e-book formats, and NO DRM. Check it out, and pass the word!

[Jorgen]

Wow, you are fast! I look forward to read it!

Jorgen

[Steve Jordan]

Funny... I didn't consider it fast at all! Especially since I was writing on the side, not as a full-time occupation. Anyway, the book is 62,000 words, not too long. (I personally do not subscribe to the idea modern publishers seem to support, that a good novel must be 150,000-300,000 pages long.)

[Jorgen]

I agree. Many of those massive tomes have lots of stuff that should have been weeded out by the editor. I like Tom Clancy's Ryan books, but I would do some serious editting if I was his editor (and I dared! He would probably just flip me aside).

[Jorgen]

or will his own fractured psyche finally shatter under the onslaught of such extreme and sexual lifestyles?

Sounds like he is a politician or UK high court judge!

[dMores]

all right!!
this means i have to finish the book i have started in 3 days ... oh boy ... won't get much sleep then :)

[BoxWave]

Congratulations on the work. I'm a small time writer myself, but I love it when we get to "meet the author".

W

[Jorgen]

"I love it when we get to "meet the author""

Yes, it does bring the reading experience to a different level.

[Steve Jordan]

Thanks for all the kind words! (Sorry I was away, family crisis.)

Sounds like he is a politician or UK high court judge!

Funny, I often think the same thing about my politicians. The best thing you can say about them is, they make great fodder for The Daily Show. What is wrong with politicians these days?!?

Jorgen, I agree with you... there are some editors out there that are clearly getting paid by the word, judging by the length of novels that are being released. I recently read one (whose title I will tactfully not divulge) that likewise seemed about twice as long as it needed to be. Mind you, I was raised on the books of Clarke and Bradbury, wherein less than 200 pages was perfectly acceptable... not to mention pulps like Doc Savage, which never broke 120 pages when Lester Dent was writing them. So a story clearly doesn't have to be long to be good.

[Jorgen]

How much of the novel do you plan before you start writing? I understand that some novelists just plan scene by scene. However, though this is a new genre, you confidently jumped right in and announced that we could start saving up for the next novel.

[Steve Jordan]

Well, I didn't quite "jump right in"... it took me a while to find a story I thought I could write, but I happened on one a lot sooner than I expected I would. Then I started developing my characters and plot, and I announced my intentions only once I'd started actually writing. There was every possibility that I would have gotten back to you all in a month, and said, "Forget it. This is garbage, and I'm flushing it now. So, who wants a new Kestral story?" Fortunately, the story developed without any major problems.

I always try to fully develop the characters, take notes on the basic plot, then work up a detailed synopsis/outline, before I begin writing. I've discovered too many times in the past that, without those elements, my writing projects quickly grind to a halt or self-destruct after the intro! As I write, little things will come to me, and some of them will cause me to revise the outline as I work. But usually, the outline fairly accurately reflects the final story.

In fact, this story deviated from the outline more than most. The story's original emphasis was supposed to be on the mystery and the missing girl. But about halfway through, I decided to establish the emphasis on the investigator, and rewrote and reshuffled things for the new emphasis. In the process, the story was transformed from mystery to psychological drama, but I don't think it suffered for it.

[Jorgen]

I have always got the impression that making up believable and at the same time exciting characters was a very difficut job. Do you visit coffeeshops and get ideas when seeing people around you? (I noticed in London that there often were someone sitting looking around and making fast notes). Or do you make them up inside your head?

[Steve Jordan]

Just thought I'd add this:

Though this is my first non-SF story, I have not actively avoided writing one before. In fact, I've wanted to write something mainstream for years. I just never came up with the story I wanted to do. The fact that this one came to me, not long after I was asked to consider a mystery, is pure serendipity.

And will I write another non-SF story? It all depends on whether I come up with another non-SF story to write! For the record, the next one in the queue is SF. But after that... who knows?

[Steve Jordan]

Do you visit coffeeshops and get ideas when seeing people around you? Or do you make them up inside your head?

So far, my characters have been out of my head. For me, creating characters is like acting: You develop them, then try to get into their head to figure out what they will do in a given situation. I've never tried copying my characters on anyone I know (you never know who you might tick off that way!), and I rarely take the trouble to jot down interesting characters or characteristics when I'm out and about.

[dMores]

steve,
is there a place where i can write a commentary on your book?

i just finished reading it, and i have to say, i'm really impressed.

at first, i found the language to be somewhat awkward, a few old expressions thrown in that totally contrast to the modern setting.

but once i met "uh-lane", i could hardly put the smartphone down.

i think, in retrospect, the first chapter does not do the book justice, because after chapter one, the story just flies!

great, great, GREAT book.
excellent story, really enjoyable characters, and the way you throw in things that us geeks enjoy, like gps, pdas, ebooks etc is really cool.
oh, and i actually cracked up a few times.

definately up to par with my previous literary enjoyment (james ellroy, david baldacci, vince flynn)

steve ... keep going. you're an excellent writer and i hope you will be able to make a name for yourself.
i suppose this means expanding to non-digital-publishing (a.k.a. paper books)

:werenotworthy:

[Steve Jordan]

8O

Damn... really? Thanks a lot!

I have been collecting what reviews I can gather, and I usually include a blurb on the Novels page. Since yours is the first to come in... and a pretty decent set of comments, I must say... I'll surely put a blurb in from you. And again, thanks!

I haven't gotten any paper publishers interested in my work yet, of course, but maybe if Lambs takes off... who knows... :D

[Steve Jordan]

Oh, by the way... I see that you mentioned the book on your blog site... thanks for that, too! (Wish I spoke the language!)

[Jorgen]

Yes, again a great book: good plot, good characters - in short a very good read! And thanks for selling it at such a low price!

[Steve Jordan]

Mmm... I'm looking for a good "blush" emoticon...

I'm grateful to be getting such good comments from my first mainstream story! After so many years of writing Sci-Fi, and not coming up with a non-SF story I considered suitable to write, I was beginning to think I'd never pull it off. I'll have to make sure I work harder to develop more non-SF material in the future (and especially if it turns out to generate better sales!).

[dh]

Hey Steve, I really like your sensible approach to eBooks and I hope you do well.

I've just downloaded Lions/Tigers and looking forward to a good read this weekend.

Edit - well the book was good enough to read without a break.

I'll have to check out some of the others now.

[Steve Jordan]

I expect my next book to be longer... so you fast readers can get a bit more enjoyment out of them!